Just before iRacing, X Motor Racing or LFS, three beautiful hardcore gems came to life: rFactor, GT Legends...and GTR2
Now, three MOST important things to consider:
1) simulations WILL NEVER, EVER, replicate real life in its entirety (in spite of what some computer scientists think).
-Pilots risk their lives when they race, or they risk their reputations or they risk multi-million dollar budgets when they wreck 2 cars in a row.
-Pilots get their feedback from a variety of sources: the wind noise, the road noise, tire noise, transmission/engine noise, their own body sensations to lateral forces.
2) GTR2 is not perfect (actually, no simulation is, from Falcon 4, Jane's F/A-18 to iRacing). Some compromises had to be made (and we DO know the impact of decisions from creative consultants and marketing heads ). But, considering the Pacejka-like tire model, the compromises due to computer requirements, ISI-Simbin-Blimey did a FANTASTIC job.
3) Developers may follow different approaches when producing sims:
A- simulation by "look and feel"
B- simulation by the sheer weight of "numbers", by the use of strict, sophisticated, demanding mathematical models [the kind of simulation that Mark Webber and Vettel are using in-house before real-life practice sessions]
I'd say neither approach (A or B) is quite super-accurate or simply inaccurate.
The important thing to remember is, according to YOUR experience (either by racing, or by driving high-powered vehicles, or simply by closely watching (and hearing) on-board cameras during DTM or V8 Supercar races), does it feel realistic or not? That is, assuming that what you want is realism...Otherwise, Ian Bell's Need for Speed - Shift or Forza 3 may just be what you need.
Anyway, GTR2 may not have been coded with rFactor's moddability abilities, but you can improve it FAR beyond the out-of-the-box state:
- SOUND: you can swap sounds (menus, in-car, exterior, music - YES, you can HEAR music while racing), change them at will, manipulate volume and when the transitions (engine wise, for instance) occur, etc;
- GRAPHICS: they were already very good when GTR2 came out, but we can improve them as far as the capabilities of the graphics engine allow...and IT'S A LOT (example of this is a stunningly photo-realistic track, Rampa do Monsanto, and also MMM's or FVRV8's beautifully done V8 Supercars); beware, however, the prettier, the more photo-realistic the landscape and cars become, the less frames-per-second we get...naturally).
- PHYSICS 1 - the tires: while everybody is praising LFS's tire model (not perfect either) or X Motor Racing adaptability to different tire models, we can go around (some experts say: "take advantage of") the shortcomings of GTR2's tire model. Go ahead, tinker with (not in-game, but through the editable text-files that make up the structure of the simulation) slip curves, drop off coeffs, Load Sensitivities, lateral/longitudinal coeffs and the rest of the many Tire parameters and you can inject more grip or less grip, more sensitivity to load, or less sensitivity to load, more or less resistance to friction, more or less degradation and so forth;
- PHYSICS 2 - the car, the aeros, the suspension, the damage: it's simply mind-boggling, the amount of parameters available to hardcore fanatics of sim racing (and yet, ISI could/should have injected EVEN MORE parameters to tweak and to model reality). We have all read about real life pilots (the few that seem to also enjoy simulations) praising rFactor/GTL/GTR2 for its authenticity, but one has to dive into the simulation to even realize we're looking at the tip of the iceberg. GTR2 cars FEEL real and LOOK real and HANDLE like the real counterparts (well, most cars, anyway, some out-of-the-box cars and some car mods are not quite what we would expect from a title such as this);
- the AI: well, truth be said, it's a strong point of GTR2, yes, but...It could be EVEN BETTER. And when you consider the universe of mods, you realize that the AI in GTR2 needs careful configuration (plr file, talent files), otherwise it will let you down. When you configure the necessary files correctly, you end up with AI that's fierce, blocks your attempts at overtaking, brakes late but also does mistakes (humans do too). You can even model some AI pilots after the real life people you're trying to emulate: just insert some pilots known statistics, such as track aggressiveness, composure, consistency, completed laps.
- multiplayer - LAN: stable.
- multiplayer - internet servers: some people report lag, connection losses, mismatch errors (specially when you go online with a modded car). Other than that, fine.
- Force Feedback: hummm...Ok. Not mind-boggling as iRacing's (according to mostly anyone who tried it) but does a fine job. You may have to tweak it to your liking (mostly, changes to the plr file).
All in all, yes, it's a 2006 simulation, yes, it's based on a physics engine that could have been even better than it is/was, BUT...if you are willing to tweak it a little, you'll enjoy it immensely.
If you are willing to dive "with the sharks", you'll end up replicating (quite faithfully) the real life behavior of GT/Touring Cars. But don't follow my lead: go for it, and THEN watch replays from on-board or outside cameras. THEN, compare them with real life. You'll be the judge, then.